The signal path between two telephones requires amplification using a four-wire circuit. The cost and cabling required discourage extending a four-wire circuit to a subscriber's premise (i.e. Private Branch Exchange (PBX)) from the local exchange or Central Office (CO). For this reason, the four-wire circuits are coupled to two-wire circuits, using a device called a hybrid. Thus, when a PBX is connected to the CO through a Loop-Start (LS) Trunk Line, for example, the hybrid couples the analog signal from the four-wire circuit (where incoming and outgoing signals are separate) to the two-wire circuit where the incoming and outgoing signals are combined.
Ideally, a hybrid passes an incoming signal from an incoming port to the two-wire circuit and does not pass any signal back to the outgoing port. Unfortunately, the hybrid does not perform ideally and thus, the hybrid is a leaky device. As signals pass from the four-wire to the two-wire portion of the network, the energy in the four-wire section is reflected back, creating an echo of the signal. The intensity of the echo depends on how well the impedance is matched between both sides of the hybrid. The impedance of the two-wire circuit can vary widely depending on factors including the line set-up in the CO equipment, the distance between CO and PBX, the electrical characteristics of the wire, etc. Provided that the total round-trip delay occurs within just a few milliseconds, the echo generates a sense that the call is ‘live’ by adding sidetone, thereby making a positive contribution to the quality of the call.
In cases where the total network delay exceeds 36 ms, however, the positive benefits disappear, and intrusive echo results. The actual amount of signal that is reflected back depends on how well the balance circuit of the hybrid matches the two-wire line. In the vast majority of cases, the match is poor, resulting in a considerable level of signal being reflected back.
It is known in the art to employ adaptive filtering to provide hybrid echo cancellation. Normalized Least Mean Square (NLMS) adaptive filtering is one method, popular in echo cancellation, to address reflections in Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) systems.
Clearly, a well-matched four-wire circuit gives little echo and makes the echo-canceling task easier. However, the selection of a best set of matching impedance settings for a specific Trunk Line is currently very subjective, mainly based on experience using trial and error. Such manual measurement consumes enormous human effort and time. Traditionally, a compromise setting is used that attempts to match a wide range of impedances, thereby sacrificing overall ERL (echo return loss) and resulting in less echo suppression. Often the echo level is at the same level as or a higher level than the incoming signal, making it difficult for the echo canceller to distinguish between echo and double talk.
In general, standard echo cancellers (adaptive filters) cancel both the constant and the varying echo path. Unfortunately, any impairment in the network can impact the echo performance of the adaptation and cause the echo canceller to diverge, even from the echo path that remains constant. U.S. Pat. No. 6,768,723 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/722,472, assigned to the assignee of the present application, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, describe a method for capturing the constant echo path in a full-duplex handsfree (FDHF) algorithm and using the constant echo coefficients as default start-up parameters. U.S. Pat. No. 6,768,723 teaches capturing and re-using coefficients of the Line Echo Canceller (LEC) representing the first hybrid reflection in the analog phone, for the purpose of improving speakerphone stability in the FDHF algorithm, where the system contains both a line echo canceller and an acoustic echo canceller. However, for line echo the changing network echo path can be superimposed over the constant echo path in such a way that no start-up coefficients can be reused. A different technique for canceling the constant echo path is therefore desirable.